D-Day: American Heroes or Americans Hero-Mongering?

Hitler, to assure his wary generals, said this of his impending invasion of the USSR in 1941: “All we need to do is kick the door in, and the entire rotten edifice will come crashing down.” Hitler was wrong. The Russians fought like hell. That fight became, by far, the greatest armed conflict in human history. In one battle alone – the Battle for Kiev – German troops took over 600,000 Russian soldiers prisoner. In another – the Minsk encirclement – the Germans took another 300,000. Such amazing victories were common to the German juggernaut early on. But, the Russians come storming back, fighting tooth and nail. The celebrated soldiers of D-Day would not have kicked up a thimble-full of Normandy sand had not the bloodied Soviets paved the way with 25 million Russian dead.

The Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, had implored America to open up a front against the Germans as early as 1942. America was not ready for that, and for good reason. A Normandy invasion in 1942 would have been an American disaster, as would have been such an attempt in ’43. It was not until 1944 that the Germans were convinced of their defeat on the eastern front. It is then that what was left of their once mighty Wehrmacht tucked tail, and went into full retreat mode. 

Americans speak proudly of their victory in Hitler’s iconic “Battle of the Bulge”, as though it was some titanic struggle between good and evil. Compared with the bloodbaths at Stalingrad, Leningrad, Moscow, and Kursk, “the Bulge” was no more than a gimmick – a last-ditch effort that dissipated as quickly as the sun could clear away the clouds, (which were all of the air cover the Germans could afford.)

Americans on the western front killed thousands of German troops in ’44 and ’45. On the eastern front, the Russians killed millions. In their march across France and into Germany, the Americans were soon killing capturing German soldiers as young as 15 and 16. This is because the Russians had already killed most of Germany’s fighting men.

I do not wish to diminish what took place at Normandy on June 6, 1944. It was truly the greatest amphibious landing in military history. But, it was successful only because Russia had bled Germany so until barely a skeletal force remained to guard Germany’s western gate.

--> The allied invaders of D-Day kicked open Hitler’s rickety door at Normandy and the western edifice crumbled. From there, the American soldier in Europe performed mop-up duty all the way to Berlin. They did not defeat Nazi tyranny, as D-Day enthusiasts like to proclaim. The Russians did that. This is what the Allies did: They marched quickly across western Europe, right up against what would become known as the “Iron Curtain.” If not for the D-Day invaders, perhaps the entirety of continental Europe would have fallen under Soviet control. This is the true significance of D-Day. The rest is hero mongering.